Canada's Department of External Affairs
| Author | H. L. Keenleyside |
| Published date | 01 July 1946 |
| Date | 01 July 1946 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070204600100301 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Canada's Department
of
External
Affairs
H.
L.
Keenleyside
T
he
first
world war
hastened
the
emergence
of
Canada
as
a
self-governing
nation.
The
great contribution
made
by
the
Canadian
people
to
the
successful
prosecution
of
that
grim
con-
flict,
and the
suffering
that
it
entailed
for
them, made
it inevitable
that
they
should
demand
for
their
government
an
independent
voice,
free
to
speak
on
their
behalf,
in
the
ordering
of
the
post-
war
world.
Strengthened
by
opinion
at
home,
Sir
Robert
Borden
was
able,
by
insistence
and
persistence,
to
gain
at
least
partial
recognition
of
Canada's
new
status
at
Versailles.
Still
wider
acknowledgement
of
Canadian
autonomy
in
foreign
affairs
came
with
the
organization
of
the
League
of Nations.
Recognition
and
practice
then
developed,
pari
passu,
until,
with
Canada's
inde-
pendent
declaration
of
war
seven
days
after
that
of
the
United
Kingdom
in
1939,
and
the
recognition
of
Canadian
neutrality
in
the
interim,
the
last
argument
over
this
issue
appears
to
have
been
formally
ended.
As
the
first
world
war
marked the
beginning
of
the
end
of
the
argument
over Canada's
status
in foreign
affairs,
so
the
second
world
war
signalized
the
emergence
of
Canada
as
a
major
focus
of
military, industrial,
and
financial
strength.
While
not
one
of
the
great
powers
(a
rapidly
narrowing
category),
Canada
by
1945
had
demonstrated
a
strength that
was
surpassed
by
that
of
not
more
than
half
a
dozen
of
the
nations
of
the
world.
Among
the
United
Nations
the
industrial
production
of Canada
was exceeded
only
by
that
of
the
United
States,
the
Union
of
Soviet
Socialist
Republics,
and
the
United
Kingdom. Before
the
end
of
the
war
with
Japan,
Canada
had
the
fourth,
if
not
the
third,
navy in
the
world.
Financially,
only
the
United
States
is
today,
at
the
end
of
the
war,
in
a
better
position
to
provide
capital
for foreign
investment
or
the
development
of
backward
areas.
In addition
to
these
things,
Canada,
through her
resources
in
189
International Journal
strategic
materials,
occupies
a
position
of
importance
in
the
industrial
and
military
world
that
is
not
always
recognized
even
by
Canadians
themselves.
To
these
facts
should
be
added
a
reference
to
the
important
part
that
Canada
has
played,
and
the
very
much
more
important
part
that
her
tremendously
increased
industrial
capacity
will
require
her
to
play
in
the
future,
in
the
development
and
main-
tenance
of
foreign
trade.
Occupying
fourth
or
fifth
position
among
the
trading
nations
before
the
war,
Canada
may
move
still
higher
in
the
list
when
the
nations
achieve
a
balance
in
their
post-war
commercial
intercourse.
This
brief
outline
of
Canada's
international
significance
is
put
together,
not
for
the
purpose
of
justifying
a
foolish
boast
of
Canadian importance,
but
to
emphasize
the
quality and
extent
of
the
new responsibilities
that
Canada
must
assume
in
the
strange
and incredibly
dangerous
world
that
is
now
in
process
of
crystallization.
Whether
Canadians
like
it
or
not,
their
country
has
to
play
a
new
and
gravely
broadened
r6le
in
international
affairs.
Because
of
these
facts
it
is
more
desirable
than
ever
before
that
all
Canadians
should
be
interested
in
the
agency
through
which
governmental
policy
in
relation
to
international
affairs
is
handled.
It
is
particularly
fitting
that
in
one
of
the
earliest
issues
of
a
new
journal
devoted
to
the
study
of
Canada's foreign
relations
there
should
be
a
brief
factual
description
of
the
Department
in
which,
under
governmental
direction, Canadian
policy
is
for-
mulated
and
by which
it
is
carried
into execution.
II
The
British
North
America
Act
of
1867,
which
established
the
new
federation,
was
concerned
chiefly
with
defining
the
relation-
ship
between
the
provinces and
the central
government
of
Canada.
It
made
no
specific
provision
for
the
exercise
by
the
Government
of
Canada'
of
increased
authority
in
relation to
foreign
affairs,
a
matter
which
in
British
countries
is
consti-'
tutionally
a
part
of
the
royal
prerogative,
and
in
which
the
King
(or
his
representative)
acts upon
the
advice
of
his
cabinet.
The
development
of
Canada's
control
over its
foreign
relations
is,
in
'It
is
worth
noting
that,
according
to
the British
North
America
Act,
the
name
of
the united
country
was
to be
"Canada,"
not
"the
Dominion
of
Canada."
190
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